Death from the Snows [Hardcover]

Brigitte Aubert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2001

Elise Andrioli is back on the case. Having solved the mystery of the child serial killings outside Paris, Elise has become sort of a minor celebrity, selling the rights to her story to a mystery writer named Brigitte Aubert.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, May 2001: One of the most original sleuths in mystery fiction is Elise Andrioli, who was introduced in Death from the Woods. Left a quadriplegic, blind, and mute after a bomb explosion, Elise spends her days confined to her wheelchair and listening to the world around her. We are privy to what she hears and what she thinks and, surprisingly, the results are never pitiful. Rather we are able to listen in to a witty, charming, and strong woman whose will is as strong as ever.

After her first adventure (described in the first book), Elise and her maid and companion, Yvette, are headed for the mountains for some R&R. Elise has had another operation and she can now move one arm, but she is still unable to communicate except to write down her thoughts and her questions for others--if only they'll take the time to read them. Before leaving, Elise receives a fax from somebody who tells her he has become a big fan of hers after reading about her first adventure. She is concerned because the guy sounds like a lunatic, but, she reasons, all famous people are subject to hearing from people several sandwiches short of a picnic.

However, when Elise arrives at the resort, she hears about a series of grisly murders and, when she is invited to visit a home for the handicapped, she is treated like a star. But the murders continue there. Worse, the murderer is there among the patients, whispering messages into Elise's ear.

As in Death from the Woods, the stage is set. Elise is in danger but can't explain why, and the murderer inexplicably is using her as his/her confidante. Those around her who can see are in the company of the murderer, but there is no way Elise can separate the voices from the whispers she hears. Death from the Snows is harrowing, suspenseful, and, thanks to Elise's unique voice, which can only be read, extraordinarily funny. --Otto Penzler

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Rain Publishers; 1 edition (September 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566491770
• ISBN-13: 978-1566491778
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,908,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Convincing look into a paralyzed woman in danger, December 8, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death from the Snows (Hardcover)

Elise Andrioli is paralyzed except her left hand with which she can write, blind, and mute, yet she can hear what is going on around her--and what is going on is terrible. In a ski resort in the French Alps, someone is torture/murdering women and leaving Elise grim threats that she will be the next. While she visits an institution for the care of disabled patients, Elise feels the threat growing, yet can do nothing to head off the danger.

Author Brigitte Aubert does a powerfully convincing job describing the mental workings of a woman deprived of some of the most important human connections to the world. Elise keeps her cool, trying to reason her way through the horrible and irrational things that are going on around her while painfully dependent on others for her continued survival. The first two hundred pages of this novel are intriguing and cerebral, followed by fifty pages of action as the threat finally unveils itself and danger surrounds Elise.

Elise is a wonderful and fully developed character. Her thoughts offer insights not only into the crimes that she faces, but into the lives of those of us not limited by the damage Elise has suffered. I found Elise's gradual unveiling of the murders in the bulk of the novel to be more powerful than the pure thriller aspects of the conclusion. Did Aubert mean for the conclusion to be as darkly comic as it reads, or is this reviewer simply becoming cynical?

DEATH FROM THE SNOWS is a mature and memorable work from France's leading female thriller author.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bury this deep, December 1, 2001

By 

Marguerite Scott (Launceston, Tasmania Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death from the Snows (Hardcover)

It is hard to believe that Brigitte Aubert could have sunk from her previous high (in Death from the Woods) to the appalling low of this offering.The self-indulgent opening pages of Death from the Woods provide an ominous warning of what is to come. Seldom do I fail to complete a book - particularly one I have obtained as a hardback - but this one joins the list. Aubert's work deserves to be buried under a deep avalache.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment, October 15, 2001

By 

Catherine A. Nickens (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death from the Snows (Hardcover)

I can't remember when I've been so disappointed in a book. Ms. Auberg's previous book, Death From the Woods, was unusual, with an intriguing heroine in Elise Andrioli, a blind, mute quadriplegic. It was an excellent, suspenceful and believable mystery--which is more than can be said for this book. Throughout Death From the Snow, rather than helping to solve the mystery, Elise simply goes from one improbable incident to another, without a clue. And the denouement was even more implausible than the rest.